Unstuck: A Writer's Guide

Description: A Most Anticipated Book of 2026 from LitHub

"Ramona Ausubel has poured so much humor and wisdom and practically useful counsel into this extraordinary book, a guide for both writing and living." --Karen Russell, author of The Antidote

Unstuck 101 Doorways Leading from the Blank Page to the Last Page is about staying in love with your writing: feeling excited, mischievous, productive, and hopeful--the opposite of being stuck.

Critically acclaimed, award-winning author and beloved teacher Ramona Ausubel offers 101 exercises that promise to welcome you back to the page again and again; to reinvigorate your process and help you see your writing through to the end. Full of personal stories and hard-earned wisdom of a veteran writer, Unstuck is written in the first person, human to human, writer to writer. Practical, clear, and welcoming, Unstuck offers immediately useable strategies for beginning, continuing, and finishing a piece of writing.

Organized into doorways and keys, Unstuck turns problems into possibilities, offers keys to put into use right now, all designed to lead the writer back to the art, not toward an outside idea or formula. With Ausubel's steady, encouraging advice--find your doorway, unlock the lock, and get writing again.

Review Quotes: "An upbeat guide to navigating the writing process . . . Warm-hearted and practical, Ausubel emerges as trustworthy companion for a writer who's stuck anywhere on the challenging road of creativity. Generous, empathetic, and unfailingly encouraging." --Kirkus Reviews

"Written in first person and filled with personal stories and advice, Ausubel's book speaks directly to readers, keeping them engaged every step of the way." --Alta Journal

"A fun, but also useful, handbook to help a struggling writer with their drafts. Whether it is starting a first draft, bulking up a working draft, or polishing a final draft, Unstuck can help." --The Driftless Area Review

"Encouraging . . . a gentle tonic for writers in need of a boost." --Publishers Weekly

"Simple, useful, and fun . . . I can see coming back to these exercises when I just can't get through a door on my own." --Story Lamp Reviews

"Conveys humor and warmth." --Library Journal, A Spring Editor's Pick

"Ramona Ausubel has poured so much humor and wisdom and practically useful counsel into this extraordinary book, a guide for both writing and living. This is the gift I want to give to every future student and to anyone who has traveled out of range of their strangest and wildest dreams." --Karen Russell, author of The Antidote

"With wit, warmth, and wisdom, Ramona Ausubel offers guidance to her fellow writers. Unstuck is a deeply companionable book and the advice it offers is both practical and helpful--go for a walk, write for an extra twenty minutes, take pleasure in falling down rabbit holes. I cannot imagine a writer, at whatever stage, who will not find these suggestions inspiring."--Margot Livesey, author of The Road from Belhaven

"Ausubel is the philosopher fairy godmother you've been waiting for--ready to nudge you toward the next solution, to show you how to trade fear for curiosity, worry for wonder. What a wise and warm guide to navigating the long haul of creative practice."--Melissa Febos, bestselling author of The Dry Season, Girlhood, and Body Work: The Radical Power of Personal Narrative

"Ramona Ausubel's Unstuck is the cheerful, generous, and wise companion you've been looking for to lead you through the many challenges of writing fiction. Open any page of this guide to imaginative possibility and you'll surely be inspired to write on. Open it to the right page at the right time and it might even save your book."--Matt Bell, author of Refuse to Be Done: How to Write and Rewrite a Novel in Three Drafts

"Ramona Ausubel is one of the wisest and kindest teachers I know. I once wrote an entire essay from the series of prompts contained within, just because I was in the room, waiting for my turn to teach and I couldn't resist them! Unstuck can't help but unstick you!"--Pam Houston, author Deep Creek: Finding Hope in the High Country